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Dr. Kermit Baron Gosnell, the Philadelphia abortionist, whose clinic was shut down last night after an investigation discovered "deplorable" conditions including blood on the floor and over a dozen fetuses in jars may have a long history of risky and illegal practices when it comes to abortion.

Dr. Gosnell may have been involved in one of the most infamous and risky cases of illegal abortions in the country's history.

Dr Tanfer Emin Tunc of Haceteppe University in Turkey wrote a piece which appeared in scholarly journals called "Harvey Karman and the super coil fiasco: A forgotten episode in the history of American abortion technology." The piece mentioned a Dr Baron Gosnell. I couldn't find the piece online so I emailed her last night asking her for more information concerning the "fiasco."

She responded:

Gosnell was the local Philadelphia ob/gyn who assisted Karman with his super coil abortions. Gosnell allowed Karman to use his clinic inorder to perform super coil abortions on a group of women from Chicago(which resulted in the fiasco to which I refer). It sounds like thesame individual to me.

In 1955 Harvey Karman was a struggling PhD student in California. He wasn't licensed to practice medicine but that didn't stop him. Karman was imprisoned for botching an abortion with a nutcracker where the mother died. California Governor Jerry Brown eventually pardoned Karman who, by then, was a pro-abortion celebrity.

Karman invented a PhD for himself from some made up European University and became a shining light in the abortion movement of the late 60's and early 70's.

Harvey was so into abortion that he invented new ways of performing them including the "Super Coil" abortion. He was so excited about this that he thought it could be the dawn of a "do-it yourself abortion kit."

This method utilizes a plastic strip 40 cm long and 4.6 mm wide, wound into a spiral 2 cm in diameter. The coil is straightened and put in an inserter through which it is introduced via the cervical os into the uterus. The method calls for insertion of several coils, and balsa tents may also be placed in the cervical canal. The coils are removed 12-24 hours after insertion, and if the uterine contents are not totally expelled spontaneously, ovum forceps are used to remove them.

Before Karman could popularize his technique he had to show it worked. And he found some willing takers. Real Choice reports:

The government of Bangladesh, along with the International Planned Parenthood Federation, imported Harvey to teach untrained local women in his ME and "super coil" abortions for use on women raped by soldiers. Harvey himself tried a variation of the "super coil" abortion by augmenting the plastic springs with pieces of balsa wood. His complication rate was spectacular, resulting in infections and perforations and nearly killing a large number of his patients. Harvey scuttled back to the United States and looked for more guinea pigs.

When Harvey returned to the states he fell in with the Jane Collective, a criminal abortion business at the time in Chiacgo. When JANE was raided and many members arrested, the group still had to find someone and someplace to perform abortions so they loaded up a group of women in their second trimester and took a bus to Philadelphia.

Enter Dr. Baron Gosnell who had agreed to help perform the second trimester abortions using this incredibly risky and experimental abortion technique - one he'd never even attempted previously. To make matters worse, Karman had called the press for publicity to incite a standoff that would go to court so he could fight to make abortion legal.

But Philadelphia's District Attorney Arlen Specter who stood by while openly publicized experimental abortions took place. Ironically, pro-choice feminist protesters gathered outside of Gosnell's illegal abortion clinic and let the air out of the tires of the bus, irate about the experimental abortions taking place.

Meanwhile, Harvey and his associates started packing the women with "super coils." Outside, the protesters were letting the air out of the bus tires. Keeping sloppy records, working well into the night, the abortion team managed to pack the 15 patients selected for "super coil" abortions by the early morning hours. One woman ended up hospitalized in Pennsylvania due to lacerations. Others needed to be hospitalized upon return to Chicago. Local health authorities contacted the Centers for Disease Control, which investigated and found that two of the patients had been lost to follow-up, one required a hysterectomy, one was hospitalized for twenty days with infection, and one continued to bleed until she became anemic. In total, nine of the 13 patients who could be tracked down had suffered complications."

Shortly after that illegal abortion debacle abortion laws were liberalized throughout the country. But that didn't end Gosnell's problems with the law.

In 1996, Gosnell was charged with "professional misconduct" as well as "censured and reprimanded" by the New York State Department of Health because he "employed a physician assistant who was not certified."

On November 20th of last year, a woman died from a botched abortion at Gosnell's clinic. It was not so much the woman's death but the presence of certain painkillers in her body that seemingly initiated the investigation. Last week, FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration agents searched Gosnell's clinic in relation to an investigation into illegal distribution of prescription painkillers.

There's no word yet on what they discovered in relation to the drug investigation but what they saw in the clinic prompted a call to the state which came in and discovered the horror show inside including "blood on the floor, and parts of aborted fetuses were displayed in jars."

The order to suspend Gosnell's medical license called "Gosnell's continued practice of medicine 'an immediate and clear danger to the public health and safety,'" reports the Inquirer.

John Stanton said the Pro-Life Union of SouthEastern Pennsylvania thanked God that the investigation prompted Gosnell's suspension. "We're there every second Saturday," said Stanton. "We protest outside saying the rosary."

Recent numbers, according to the Pro-Life Union of Southeastern Pennsylvania, show that Gosnell's clinic had performed thousands of abortion in recent years.

What do you mean prior to Roe v. Wade???That decision legalized the murdering of pre born children!!! We must pray for those who view this continous slaughter as a reproductive right! Pray for transformation of hearts and for the enactment of a Human Person Amendment!

Deaths in America per year1,400,000 people die from abortion650,000 people die of heart disease560,000 people die of cancer143,000 people die of stroke75,000 people die of diabetes

Another perspective:18,000 - Deaths by death penalty in American history (all the way back to the 1600s).1,315,000 - Deaths in all American wars combined.50,000,000+ - Deaths by abortion since Roe v Wade

If a woman sets out to have the fellow human inside her hacked to bits and she finds herself subsequently hacked to bits, how am I supposed to feel? Sad for her? Outraged? Astonished?

I rather feel an effective lesson has been learned. If she is rendered infertile in the whole gruesome process, I think it is just nature's way of never trusting her with offspring again. Nature is smart that way. You don't just take a life and cruise merrily through your own.

He is proof that it takes a certain level of madness to be able to commit such atrocities. How is his keeping baby bits in jars and different than Dahmer keeping pieces of his victims in the refrigerator? Disturbing.

While I can't speak for Blackrep, I think my opinion might be similar. I don't believe the abortionists are carrying out God's Will, however, I do think the women seeking abortions (back-alley or "safe" and legal) are complicit in the act of murder and therefore are not innocent victims to be pitied. We can feel compassion toward them and their situation that led them to the abortionist, but we must hold them accountable as well. And the women themselves need to be prepared for the consequences of an abortion. It's not as if these complications are all that rare.

In short, Craig, yes, if you consider God's will to be that consequences are always attendant upon actions. At length, God never wills that we sin and harm others, yet he allows the results of violating the natural law to be meted out upon us in full force and for good reason. Then maybe we won't do it again, and seek his grace and forgiveness.

So, they deserve it. I would deserve and expect death if I murdered another innocent for my own convenience. Bemoaning the fact that these women didn't get lovely, painless, infectionless, ways to murder their young is absurd. Let abortion always be a terrible, scary, maiming proposition. Then there will be a whole lot less of it.

I think you're being reactionary here. That's not what Blackrep said! All that was said is that there are natural consequences to abortions. Pro-lifers don't want women to get hurt because Pro-lifers don't want women to undergo procedures that kill innocent children. But if a woman chooses to undergo a risky procedure in order to kill a child, why should one feel sorry for her? She is reaping the natural consequence of her action!

When a child steals a piece of gum from a store and his parent takes away the gum and makes the child apologize, should we feel sorry for the child because he loses the gum?

No, he didn't. He said that women who murder their children are not deserving of our sympathy if those murders lead to their own demise. I'm not sure that I entirely agree with him, but I can certainly understand how he gets there.

Why should we feel sorry for women/young girls who have abortions? Because we are Christians, and we are supposed to have some understanding of what it is like to be held captive by The Enemy. These girls are usually not thinking as clearly as you all are. They are often desperate, and often pressured or even coerced by boyfriends, parents, or employers. Most of these young women don't comprehend or believe that they are having a baby "hacked to bits;" they believe they are having a clump of cells removed, and this is what groups like Planned Parenthood want them to believe. It sounds to me like the most unsympathetic voices here may belong to people who have not been active in Pro-Life work, i.e., stood on the sidewalk in all kinds of weather, worked in a pregnancy resource center, etc. May I charitably suggest that you consider dialing down the condemnatory tone and join those of us on the sidewalk at 40 Days for Life. It will change your life.

I worked at an abortion clinic in Delaware where Dr. Gosnell worked part-time. I can say with first-hand experience the clinic is dirty, unsanitary, the instruments used are not properly sterilized. I'm not against abortions, but if you choose to have one make sure you do your homework on the facility. I was appalled at some of the things I witnessed.